Some methods and apparatuses for the grouped arrangement of food products are known in the state of the art. The food products can be, for example, patties. The term patty is used to denote a meatball or rissole or a shaped product of meat and/or vegetarian constituents, for example, as used for burgers.
One conventional apparatus and method are known from EP 1 472 162. Individual product portions are conveyed by a so-called lining-up belt and transferred at a transfer edge to a so-called portioning belt on which the portions can be deposited in various formats. After deposit the products can be deposited in one or more packages. This machine and method are complex and subject to a plurality of potential failure modes.
In general, a difficulty persists in this field, related to placing the food products on a feed or conveyor belt as accurately as possible and positioning them in a precise arrangement.